wiki/notebook/editor.neovim.text-objects.org

:PROPERTIES:
:ID:       5c4641ab-91d5-4cd6-bdec-4f899fdd9ea5
:END:
#+title: Neovim text objects
#+date: 2022-04-01 16:06:02 +08:00
#+date_modified: 2022-05-22 22:46:31 +08:00
#+language: en


(Neo)Vim has a bunch of text objects that are beyond simple boundaries other than a word (=aw=, =aW=).
You can find more of them with =text-objects= section from [[id:0a0fe63e-dcf3-4928-9e82-5513784c1244][Neovim help system]].

| Text object | Description                         |
|-------------+-------------------------------------|
| =ap=        | A paragraph, equivalent to =}=.     |
| =as=        | A sentence, equivalent to =)=.      |
| =ab=        | A '( )' block.                      |
| =aB=        | A '{ }' block.                      |
| =a"=        | Content inside double-quotes (="=). |

There is also a variation for selecting only the inner content of the previous text objects (e.g., =ip= for the inner paragraph, =is= for inner sentence) with the whitespace removed.

Note that selecting with text objects is different from selecting with [[roam:Neovim motions]] where it refers to the current position up to the end of the next selection.
Meanwhile, text objects selection will select to the referred object as a whole no matter where the cursor position.
For example, selecting with the paragraph (i.e., =vap=) will select the whole paragraph where the cursor rests.

Aside from the built-in text objects, you can create your own.
Which also means others have created some custom text objects.

- [[https://github.com/nvim-treesitter/nvim-treesitter-textobjects][nvim-treesitter-textobjects]] add text objects support for selecting (and swapping, moving, and peeking) tree-sitter nodes.
  (Assuming you have tree-sitter support enabled for Neovim.)